Apparel | Wednesday, March 03, 2010

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SUPIMA IN THE NEWS: Brooks Brothers and WWD

By Greg Wang

NEW YORK—Almost everyone has heard that longtime Supima partner Brooks Brothers was founded with the motto “To make and deal only in merchandise of the finest body, to sell it at a fair profit and to deal with people who seek and appreciate such merchandise.”

That was way back in 1818.

And they’re still doing it.

Their latest? An entire collection based on Supima cotton.

Supported by a glorious lifestyle catalog that was recently mailed to 400,000 homes.

And in this retail environment, that’s attracted a lot of notice.

Here, writing in last week’s Women’s Wear Daily, in a story headlined BROOKS BROTHERS TOUTS SUPIMA IN SPRING CAMPAIGN, is what reporter Valerie Seckler had to say:

Brooks Brothers is devoting the biggest part of its spring-summer marketing budget ever — 50 percent — to one of its strongest suits: Supima cotton clothing.

The retailer this week has been mailing 400,000 Brooks Brothers Supima Cotton Collection 32-page catalogues, installing Supima cotton displays in the windows and interiors of roughly 100 stores nationwide, and offering 25 percent off a single purchase from the Brooks Brothers Supima Collection of an item costing $100 or more, through March 25.

Supima cotton fabric is used in apparel that has been producing about 40 percent of Brooks Bros.’ revenue annually, said Lou Amendola, executive vice president of merchandising. The staple cotton is in 70 percent of Brooks Bros.’ spring-summer clothing and 50 percent of the retailer’s clothing overall. Later this month, the campaign will feature a landing page at brooksbrothers.com, highlighting Supima merchandise and a behind-the-scenes video from the catalogue shoot.

The spring campaign marks the just the second time fiber company Supima has teamed with a retailer to market its brand of cotton in stores as well as in the media, said Jesse Curlee, Supima’s president and chief executive officer. The first was a continuing project with Bloomingdale’s, begun in December, to spotlight the cotton in 18 stores around the country.

nows that the best, the softest, the strongest, the most all-American cotton in the world comes from Supima.